Method for preparing (meth)acrylic acid ester

ABSTRACT

A method for preparing a (meth)acrylic acid ester, which comprises reacting (meth)acrylic acid with a C 1-3  alcohol in the presence of a strongly acidic ion exchange resin as a catalyst, wherein the reaction is carried out under reduced pressure while the molar ratio of the alcohol to the (meth)acrylic acid is adjusted to be less than 1, whereby it is possible not only to improve the esterification yield by one pass but also to reduce the amount of a by-product alkoxypropionate which is problematic in the purification system.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION Field of the Invention

The present invention relates to a method for preparing a (meth)acrylicacid ester. Particularly, the present invention relates to a method forpreparing a (meth)acrylic acid ester by reacting (meth)acrylic acid witha C₁₋₃ alcohol under specific conditions. Here, the term "(meth)acrylic"means each of "acrylic" and "methacrylic".

Discussion of Background

A (meth)acrylic acid ester is industrially important as a material forsynthetic fibers, coating materials, adhesives, etc.

It is well known to use an ion exchange resin as a catalyst for thepreparation of a (meth)acrylic acid ester by reacting (meth)acrylic acidwith an alcohol. This reaction is an equilibrium reaction, and it isaccordingly common to use one of the reactants, usually the alcohol, inexcess in the reaction and to remove water formed by the reaction fromthe reaction system, to shift the equilibrium to increase theconversion.

As a method for removing water, various proposals have heretofore beenmade, such as a high temperature reaction, a reduced pressure reactionand a method by means of azeotropic distillation.

For example, JP-A-8-143512 proposes a method for preparing a(meth)acrylic acid ester by an esterification reaction of (meth)acrylicacid with a C₁₋₈ alcohol in the presence of an ion exchange resin as acatalyst, wherein the reaction is carried out under reduced pressure,while the reaction liquid is circulated with heating to remove formedwater whereby a high conversion is attained. However, this method has adrawback that the reaction liquid must be heated and circulated in orderto attain the high conversion, and working Examples are limited to casesof higher alcohols having 4 or 6 carbon atoms.

JP-A-53-56611 proposes a method for preparing an acrylic acid ester byreacting acrylic acid with a higher alcohol in the presence of an ionexchange resin as a catalyst, wherein the reaction is carried out underreduced pressure using the alcohol in excess. In this case, it isdisclosed that by carrying out the reaction under reduced pressure, ahigh conversion can be accomplished by one pass without using a solvent,the selectivity for the reaction is good as compared with reactionsunder atmospheric pressure, and the increase of by-products is slow.However, the reaction is carried out under a condition that the alcoholis in excess, whereby the proportion in formation of an alkoxypropionicacid and an alkoxypropionic acid ester is deviated to thealkoxypropionic acid ester. Accordingly, this method has a drawback thatwhen the reaction is carried out by using a lower alcohol such asmethanol, the alkoxypropionic acid ester will be distilled together withthe acrylic acid ester in the purification system and tends to beaccumulated in the purification system, whereby the load in thepurification process tends to be large.

Further, JP-A-55-122740 proposes a method for preparing a (meth)acrylicacid ester by reacting (meth)acrylic acid with methanol or ethanol inthe presence of an ion exchange resin as a catalyst, wherein thereaction is carried out by maintaining the reaction system in agas-liquid mixed state while supplying the feed material to the reactor.In this case, for esterification of a lower alcohol, the reaction is notrequired to be carried out under reduced pressure, and it is disclosedthat a high conversion can be accomplished by one pass by maintainingthe gas-liquid mixed phase under atmospheric pressure. However,according to the study conducted by the present inventors, it wasimpossible to accomplish a conversion beyond a level equal to a liquidphase reaction even at a temperature at which a gas-liquid mixed phaseis obtained under atmospheric pressure in the reaction of a loweralcohol. Further, this method has a drawback that the reactiontemperature tends to be somewhat high in order to attain the gas-liquidmixed phase under atmospheric pressure, and thus it is likely to lead toa trouble that (meth)acrylic acid undergoes polymerization.

As described above, in a conventional esterification method which iscarried out in the presence of an excess amount of an alcohol, theconversion in the esterification reaction has not necessarily beenadequate, and there has been a problem that the amount of resultingby-product such as an alkoxypropionic acid ester which will beproblematic in the purification system or a polymer of an acrylic acidester, is substantial.

Thus, it is an object of the present invention to provide a methodwhereby in the preparation of a (meth)acrylic acid ester by reacting(meth)acrylic acid with a C₁₋₃ lower alcohol in the presence of an ionexchange resin as a catalyst, it is possible not only to improve theesterification yield by one pass but also to reduce as far as possiblethe amount of formation of a by-product which will be problematic in thepurification system.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present inventors have conducted extensive studies to solve theabove problems and as a result, have found that by carrying out thereaction under reduced pressure in the presence of a strongly acidic ionexchange resin as a catalyst and further adjusting the molar ratio ofthe lower alcohol to the (meth)acrylic acid to be less than 1, it ispossible not only to improve the conversion and selectivity for theesterification reaction by one pass but also to reduce, particularly inthe reaction of acrylic acid with methanol, the amount of formation ofmethyl methoxypropionate which has a boiling point close to acrylic acidand thus is problematic in the purification system. The presentinvention has been accomplished on the basis of this discovery.

Namely, the present invention provides:

1. A method for preparing a (meth)acrylic acid ester, which comprisesreacting (meth)acrylic acid with a C₁₋₃ alcohol in the presence of astrongly acidic ion exchange resin as a catalyst, wherein the reactionis carried out under reduced pressure while the molar ratio of thealcohol to the (meth)acrylic acid is adjusted to be less than 1.

2. The method according to Item 1, wherein methanol is used as the C₁₋₃alcohol.

3. The method according to Item 1 or 2, wherein the molar ratio of thealcohol to the (meth)acrylic acid is from 0.3 to less than 1.

4. The method according to any one of Items 1 to 3, wherein the reactionpressure is from 100 to 500 Torr.

5. The method according to any one of Items 1 to 4, wherein the reactiontemperature is from 60° to 130° C.

6. The method according to any one of Items 1 to 5, wherein a fixed bedreactor is used as the reactor and the space velocity (hr⁻¹) of thereaction liquid fed to the fixed bed reactor is from 0.1 to less than 1.

7. A method for preparing methyl (meth)acrylate which comprises reacting(meth)acrylic acid with methanol in the presence of a strongly acidicion exchange resin as a catalyst, wherein the reaction is carried outunder a pressure of from 100 to 500 Torr at a temperature of from 60° to130° C. at a space velocity (hr⁻¹) of from 0.1 to less than 1, while themolar ratio of methanol to the (meth)acrylic acid is adjusted to be from0.3 to less than 1.

8. The method according to any one of Items 1 to 7, wherein(meth)acrylic acid and methanol are reacted by supplying them to a fixedbed reactor packed with the strongly acidic ion exchange resin, whereinthe (meth)acrylic acid and the methanol are contacted in the gas-liquidparallel flow mode.

9. The method according to any one of Items 1 to 8, wherein a reactionmixture obtained by the reaction of (meth)acrylic acid with the alcoholunder reduced pressure, is supplied to a (meth)acrylic acid separationdistillation column of a next step without cooling or condensing it.

10. The method according to any one of Items 1 to 9, wherein when areaction mixture obtained by the reaction of (meth)acrylic acid with thealcohol under reduced pressure is fed to a (meth)acrylic acid separationdistillation column of a next step, a liquid component and a gascomponent of the reaction mixture are separated, and the gas componentis supplied in the vicinity of the top of the distillation column, andthe liquid component is supplied to a position lower than the supplyingposition of the gas component.

11. The method according to any one of Items 1 to 10, wherein a heatexchanger type multitubular reactor is used as an esterificationreactor, wherein the catalyst is packed in the reaction tubes, and theoutside of the reaction tube is heated by steam or a heating medium.

12. The method according to any one of Items 1 to 11, wherein acrylicacid is used as the (meth)acrylic acid.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING

FIG. 1 is a flow sheet illustrating an embodiment of the presentinvention, wherein reference numeral 1 indicates an esterificationreactor, numeral 2 indicates an acrylic acid separating column andnumeral 3 indicates a condenser.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

Now, the method of the present invention will be described in detailwith reference to the preferred embodiments.

The C₁₋₃ alcohol to be used in the present invention may, for example,bemethanol, ethanol, n-propanol or i-propanol. The alcohol may be of apurity useful for an industrial purpose. However, the water contentshouldpreferably be as small as possible.

When methanol is employed as the alcohol, in a case of a conventionalmethod wherein esterification is carried out in the presence of anexcess amount of methanol, the boiling point (143° C.) of methylmethoxypropionate formed as a by-product is very close to the boilingpoint (141° C.) of acrylic acid and thus will be problematic initsseparation in the purification system. Whereas, in the presentinvention, the esterification is carried out in the presence of anexcess amount of acrylic acid, whereby the amount of the formation ofthe by-product can bereduced to a large extent.

The acrylic acid or methacrylic acid to be used in the present inventionmay be of a purity useful for an industrial purpose. However, the watercontent should preferably be small as possible.

The molar ratio of the lower alcohol to the (meth)acrylic acid isusually from 0.3 to less than 1, preferably from 0.5 to 0.75. Anyremaining (meth)acrylic acid will be recovered in a purification stepand returned to the reactor.

The strongly acidic cation exchange resin to be used in the presentinvention is usually the one obtained by treating a styrene-divinylbenzene copolymer with sulfuric acid. As the resin, a porous or gel typeresin may be employed. However, a porous type resin is preferablyemployed. Especially when crude acrylic acid is to be used, it ispreferred to use a porous type resin excellent in organic stainresistance. As a porous strongly acidic cation exchange resin, the onehaving a crosslinking degree of from 2 to 16%, a porosity of from 0.1 to0.1 ml/g and an average pore size of from 100 to 600 Å is preferred.Specific examples include Diaion PK-208, PK-216 and P-228 (manufacturedbyMitsubishi Chemical Corporation), HCR-W2-H, MSC-1 and 88 (manufacturedby Dow Chemical Company), Duolite C-260 and Amberlyst-16 (manufacturedby Rohm & Haas Co.), and SPC-108, SPC-112 (manufactured by Bayer).

Among them, Diaion PK-216 (manufactured by Mitsubishi ChemicalCorporation)or HCR-W2-H (manufactured by Dow Chemical Company) ispreferably employed.

As a reactor to be used for the preparation of a (meth)acrylic acidester employing such an ion exchange resin as a catalyst, is preferablya fixed bed reactor, and as its reaction system, it is preferred toemploy a system wherein the reaction is carried out as agas-liquid-solid three phase reaction. In the present invention, thegas-liquid flow mode is preferably a gas-liquid parallel flow.

In a case where the reaction is carried out in a gas-liquid counterflow, it is necessary to secure the flow of gas by adjusting the shape,size andpacking mode of the strongly acidic ion exchange resin.

Further, as a preliminary stage for the gas-liquid-solid three phasereaction, an esterification reaction in a fixed bed under atmosphericpressure or elevated pressure may be combined.

The reaction temperature is usually from 60° to 130° C., preferably from60° to 100° C., more preferably from 70° to 90° C. If the temperature islower than 60° C., the activities of the catalyst tend to be inadequate,and the reactionrate tends to be low, whereby the volume of the reactorwill have to be increased, such being not economical. Further, since theboiling point of acrylic acid under a pressure of 500 Torr is 129° C.,and if the temperature exceeds 130° C., acrylic acid tends to evaporateunder reduced pressure, whereby the effects of the present inventionwill be low.

The pressure for the reaction is preferably from 100 to 500 Torr, morepreferably from 200 to 300 Torr. If the pressure is lower than 100 Torr,acrylic acid is likely to evaporate, whereby the effects of the presentinvention will be low.

The space velocity (hr⁻¹) of the reaction liquid to be supplied tothefixed bed reactor is usually from 0.1 to less than 1.0, preferablyfrom 0.33 to 0.5. If the space velocity (SV) is less than 0.1, theproductivityper unit volume of the reactor tends to low, such beinguneconomical. Further, if SV is 1.0 or higher, no adequate conversiontends to be obtained.

To conduct the reaction under reduced pressure at a temperature of from60° to 130° C., it is preferred to employ a heat exchanger typemultitubular reactor as the esterification reactor. This reactor isdisposed vertically and the ion exchange resin as a catalyst is packedin the reaction tubes. Then, preferably, liquid reactants comprising(meth)acrylic acid and the alcohol as the main components, are suppliedfrom an upper portion. Steam or a heating medium is supplied to theoutside of the reaction tubes to maintain the reaction temperature inthe reaction tubes. The pressure for the reaction can be maintained from100 to 500 Torr by connecting the outlet of the esterification reactorto a vacuum system such as a vacuum pump via a condenser.

As shown in JP-A-2-279655, the reaction mixture after the esterificationreaction is led to a (meth)acrylic acid separation step as a next step,whereby unreacted (meth)acrylic acid will be separated.

The separation of (meth)acrylic acid is usually carried out bydistillation. However, it is not desirable to expose (meth)acrylic acidtoa high temperature from the viewpoint of preventing frompolymerization. Accordingly, it is preferred to operate the(meth)acrylic acid separation distillation column under reducedpressure. Preferably, the outlet of the esterification reactor isconnected to the acrylic acid separation distillation column, so thatthe reaction mixture is directly supplied to the acrylic acid separationdistillation column, whereby the reaction system and the distillationsystem can be maintained under reduced pressure consistently.

In the present invention, the esterification reactor is preferablymaintained under a reduced pressure of from 100 to 500 Torr, and thetemperature is maintained at a level of from 60° to 130° C.,by heatingwith steam or a heating medium. Under such reaction conditions, a partof the reaction liquid evaporates as the esterification reactionproceeds. The reaction mixture at the outlet of the esterificationreactoris in a gas-liquid mixed state wherein the reaction liquid andthe gas formed by evaporation of a part thereof, are co-existing. In astep next to the esterification reaction, (meth)acrylic acid isseparated by distillation in the (meth)acrylic acid separationdistillation column. Here, by supplying the reaction mixture from theoutlet of the esterification reactor to the (meth)acrylic acidseparation distillation column without condensing or cooling it, it ispossible to effectively utilize the heat energy supplied to theesterification reactor. Thus, it has been found that separation of(meth)acrylic acid can be carried out more effectively from theviewpoint of the energy and separation by distillation.

Further, the present inventors have confirmed that of the reaction ofthe mixture at the reactor in the gas-liquid coexistent state, theliquid component contains (meth)acrylic acid as the main component, andthe gas component is a mixture -containing the alcohol, the(meth)acrylic acid ester and water formed by the esterificationreaction, as the main component. These compositions vary depending uponthe type of the alcohol,the reaction temperature and the reactionpressure. However, the higher thereaction pressure and the lower thereaction temperature, the smaller the inclusion of (meth)acrylic acid inthe gas component at the outlet of the reactor. In a reverse case, thecontent of low boiling components such as a (meth)acrylic acid ester inthe liquid component tends to be small.

It has been found that when the reaction mixture at the outlet of thereactor is supplied to the (meth)acrylic acid separation distillationcolumn, the liquid component containing (meth)acrylic acid as the maincomponent and the gas component containing the alcohol and the(meth)acrylic acid ester as the main components, are preliminarilyseparated, and this gas component is fed in the vicinity of the top ofthe(meth)acrylic acid separation distillation column and the liquidcomponent is fed at a position lower than the supplying position of theabove gas component to the distillation column.

Now, the present invention will be described in detail with reference tothe flow sheet. (Meth)acrylic acid and the alcohol are mixed andsupplied from an upper portion of an esterification reactor 1. In theinterior of the esterification reactor, an ion exchange resin is packedas a catalyst.To the esterification reactor, steam or a heating mediumis supplied to maintain the reaction temperature.

A reaction mixture withdrawn from the esterification reactor 1 isseparatedinto a liquid component and a gas component. Preferably, thegas component is supplied at an upper portion of a (meth)acrylic acidseparation column 2 i.e. in the vicinity of the top of the distillationcolumn. This (meth)acrylic acid separation column 2 is connected to avacuum system viaa condenser 3. From the top of the (meth)acrylic acidseparation column 2, a mixture comprising the alcohol, the (meth)acrylicacid ester and the water formed by the reaction, is distilled, and inthe next step, the alcohol and water are separated from this mixedliquid to obtain the (meth)acrylic acid ester as a product. From thebottom of the column, substantially (meth)acrylic acid flows out, andthe (meth)acrylic acid is,after separating the reaction by-product (notshown in the flow sheet) or as it is, recycled for use again in theesterification reaction.

Now, the present invention will be described in further detail withreference to Examples and Comparative Examples. However, it should beunderstood that the present invention is by no means restricted to suchspecific Examples.

EXAMPLE 1

100 cc of a strongly acidic ion exchange resin (PK-216) was packed andfixed in an inner pipe of a jacketed pipe reaction column made of glasshaving an inner diameter of 20 mm and a length of 500 mm, and atemperature sensor terminal was inserted at the center portion of thisreaction column. To the outer jacket, a heating medium (triethyleneglycol) heated to 80° C. by a mantle heater, was circulated. Thepressure of the reaction system was maintained at 300 Torr (0.04 MPa).

As the feed material, an acrylic acid/methanol mixed liquid wherein themolar ratio of methanol to acrylic acid was 0.75, was used. To thismixed liquid, 1,000 ppm of hydroquinone, 500 ppm of hydroquinonemonomethyl ether and 500 ppm of phenothiazine were added aspolymerization-inhibitors.

The mixed feed material was supplied at SV=0.33 from the upper portionof the reactor via a back-pressure valve, by a constant delivery pump.

The reaction liquid obtained from the lower portion of the reactioncolumn was completely condensed to obtain an esterification productcomprising 15.92 mol% of acrylic acid (hereinafter referred to simply asAA), 2.05 mol% of methanol (hereinafter referred to simply as MeOH),40.80 mol% of methyl acrylate (hereinafter referred to simply as AEM),40.80 mol% of water, 0.24 mol% of methoxypropionic acid (hereinafterreferred to simply as MPA), and 0.19 mol% of methyl methoxypropionate(hereinafter referred to simply as MPM). The conversion of methanol wasas high as 95.32% (the equilibrium conversion from calculation: 83%).The selectivity was 98.50%.

The reaction results under the above conditions are shown in Table 1.

EXAMPLES 2 AND 3 AND COMPARATIVE EXAMPLE 1

The esterification reaction was carried out in the same manner as inExample 1 except that the reaction pressure was changed as identified inTable 1. The results are shown in Table 1.

EXAMPLES 4 TO 6

The reaction was carried out under the same conditions as in Example 1except that the reaction pressure was changed as shown in Table 2 andthe molar ratio (MeOH/AA) was changed to 0.5. The results are shown inTable 2.

EXAMPLE 7 AND COMPARATIVE EXAMPLE 2

Using the same apparatus as used in Example 1, the reaction was carriedoutat 80° C. under 300 Torr with a molar ratio of 0.85 (Example 7) or1.4 (Comparative Example 2). The reaction results are shown in Table 3.

EXAMPLE 8 AND COMPARATIVE EXAMPLE 3

The reaction was carried out in the same manner as in Example 1 exceptthatthe temperature of the heating medium was changed to 65° C.(Example8) or 55° C. (Comparative Example 3) as shown in Table 4. Theresults are shown in Table 4 together with the results of Example 1.

EXAMPLE 9

The reaction was carried out under the same conditions as in Example 1,butthe reaction liquid was not completely condensed, and a gas componentand aliquid component were separately obtained. The results are shown inTable 5. The gas component flowed out at a rate of 3.12 g/hr andcomprised 80.42mol% of AEM, 5.66 mol% of methanol and 14.15 mol% ofwater. The liquid component flowed out at a rate of 27.23 g/hr andcomprised 42.76 mol% of water, 37.77 mol% of AEM, 17.25 mol% of acrylicacid, 1.76 mol% of methanol, 0.26 mol% of MPA and 0.20 mol% of MPM.

EXAMPLE 10 AND COMPARATIVE EXAMPLE 4

The reaction was carried out in the same manner as in Example 1 exceptthatethanol (hereinafter referred to simply as EtOH) was used instead ofmethanol, and the molar ratio (EtOH/AA) and the reaction pressure werechanged as identified in Table 6. The results are shown in Table 6.

EXAMPLE 11

The esterification reaction was carried out in the same manner as inExample 1 except that methacrylic acid was used instead of acrylic acid,and the pressure was changed to 200 Torr, and SV was changed to 0.2.

As a result, from the lower portion of the reaction column, anesterification product was obtained which comprised 19.34 mol% ofmethacrylic acid, 4.04 mol% of methanol, 38.31 mol% of methylmethacrylateand 38.31 ml% of water.

The conversion of methanol by one pass was as high as 90%.

COMPARATIVE EXAMPLE 5

The reaction was carried out in the same manner as in Example 11 exceptthat the reaction pressure was atmospheric pressure, whereby theconversion of methanol was 77%.

It is evident from the above Examples and Comparative Examples thataccording to the present invention, when a (meth)acrylic acid ester isprepared by reacting (meth)acrylic acid with a C₁₋₃ lower alcohol in thepresence of an ion exchange resin as the catalyst, it is possible notonly to improve the selectivity and conversion by one pass in theesterification reaction but also to substantially reduce the amount offormation of a by-product alkoxypropionic acid ester which will beproblematic in the purification system.

                  TABEL 1    ______________________________________                                         Comparative    Example No.  1        2       3      Example 1    ______________________________________    Molar ratio (MeOH/AA)                 0.75     0.75    0.75   0.75    Reaction pressure                 300      200     450    760    (Torr)    Reaction temp. (°C.)                 73       70      77     --    Heating medium temp.                 80       80      80     80    (°C.)    SV (hr.sup.-1)                 0.33     0.33    0.33   0.33    Conversion of methanol                 95.32    94.95   92.50  82.67    (%)    Composition            AEM      40.80    40.15 38.65  32.94    (mol %) MPM      0.19     0.19  0.43   0.53            MPA      0.24     0.24  0.55   0.36    AEM selectivity (%)                 98.50    98.48   96.48  95.87    ______________________________________

                  TABLE 2    ______________________________________    Example No.    4          5       6    ______________________________________    Molar ratio (MeOH/AA)                   0.5        0.5     0.5    Reaction pressure                   200        300     450    (Torr)    Reaction temp. (°C.)                   75         75      78    Heating medium temp.                   80         80      80    (°C.)    SV (hr.sup.-1) 0.33       0.33    0.33    Conversion of methanol                   97.68      95.87   93.50    (%)    Composition               AEM     33.59      32.88 30.15    (mol%)     MPM     0.08       0.15  0.34               MPA     0.20       0.33  0.67    AEM selectivity (%)                   98.94      98.12   95.71    ______________________________________

                  TABEL 3    ______________________________________                                         Comparative    Example No.  1        5       7      Example 2    ______________________________________    Molar ratio (MeOH/AA)                 0.75     0.5     0.85   1.4    Reaction pressure                 300      300     300    300    (Torr)    Reaction temp. (°C.)                 73       75      73     --    Heating medium temp.                 80       80      80     80    (°C.)    SV (hr.sup.-1)                 0.33     0.33    0.33   0.33    Conversion of methanol                 95.32    95.87   94.23  96.12*    (%)    Composition            AEM      40.80    32.88  42.30 40.43    (mol%)  MPM      0.19     0.15   0.28  0.31            MPA      0.24     0.33   0.16  0.01    AEM selectivity (%)                 98.50    98.12   98.33  98.47    ______________________________________    *Conversion of acrylic acid

                  TABLE 4    ______________________________________                                     Comparative    Example No     1         8       Example 3    ______________________________________    Molar ratio (MeOH/AA)                   0.75      0.75    0.75    Reaction pressure                   300       300     300    (Torr)    Reaction temp. (°C.)                   73        --      --    Heating medium temp.                   80        65      55    (°C.)    SV (hr.sup.-1) 0.33      0.33    0.33    Conversion of methanol                   95.32     85.19   77.26    (%)    Composition              AEM      40.80     36.70 32.55    (mol%)    MPM      0.19      0.23  0.24              MPA      0.24      0.15  0.10    AEM selectivity (%)                   98.50     98.36   98.25    ______________________________________

                  TABLE 5    ______________________________________    Example No.         9    ______________________________________    Molar ratio (MeOH/AA)                        0.75    Reaction pressure (Torr)                        300    Reaction temp. (°C.)                        73    Heating medium temp. (°C.)                        80    SV (hr.sup.-1)      0. 33    Conversion of methanol (%)                        95.32                        Liquid  Gas                        phase   phase    Flow rate (g/hr)    27.23   3.12    Composition              AEM           37.77   80.42    mol(%)    MeOH          1.76    5.66              H.sub.2 O     42.76   14.15              AA            17.25   0.00              MPM           0.20    0.00              MPA           0.26    0.00    AEM selectivity (%) 98.50    ______________________________________

                  TABLE 6    ______________________________________                              Comparative    Example No.       10      Example 4    ______________________________________    Molar ratio (EtOH/AA)                      0.5     0.5    Reaction pressure 200     760    (Torr)    Reaction temp. (°C.)                      --      --    Heating medium temp.                      80      80    (°C.)    SV (hr.sup.-1)    0.33    0.33    Conversion of ethanol                      93.96   86.80    (%)    Composition              AEE         30.87   29.95    (mol%)    EPE         0.12    0.23              EPA         0.19    0.27    AEE selectivity (%)                      98.63   97.62    ______________________________________

What is claimed is:
 1. A method for preparing a (meth)acrylic acidester, which comprises reacting (meth)acrylic acid with a C₁₋₃ alcoholin a reactor containing a strongly acidic ion exchange resin as acatalyst, wherein the reaction is carried out under reduced pressure,the molar ratio of the alcohol to the (meth)acrylic acid is adjusted tobe less than 1, and the reaction mixture obtained from said reactor issupplied to a (meth)acrylic acid separation distillation column, whereina liquid component and a gas component of said reaction mixture areseparated and the gas component is supplied in the vicinity of the topof the distillation column, and the liquid component is supplied to aportion of the distillation column which is lower than the positionwhere the gas component is supplied.
 2. The method according to claim 1,wherein methanol is used as the C₁₋₃ alcohol.
 3. The method according toclaim 1, wherein the molar ratio of the alcohol to the (meth)acrylicacid is from 0.3 to less than
 1. 4. The method according to claim 1,wherein the reaction pressure is from 100 to 500 Torr.
 5. The methodaccording to claim 1, wherein the reaction temperature is from 60° to130° C.
 6. The method according to claim 1, wherein a fixed bed reactoris used as the reactor and the space velocity (hr⁻¹) of the reactionliquid supplied to the fixed bed reactor is from 0.1 to less than
 1. 7.A method for preparing methyl (meth)acrylate which comprises reacting(meth)acrylic acid with methanol in a reactor containing a stronglyacidic ion exchange resin as a catalyst, wherein the reaction is carriedout under a pressure of from 100 to 500 Torr at a temperature of from60° to 130° C. at a space velocity (hr⁻¹) of from 0.1 to less than 1,while the molar ratio of methanol to the (meth)acrylic acid is adjustedto be from 0.3 to less than 1 and the reaction mixture obtained fromsaid reactor is supplied to a (meth)acrylic acid separation distillationcolumn, wherein a liquid component and a gas component of said reactionmixture are separated and the gas component is supplied in the vicinityof the top of the distillation column, and the liquid component issupplied to a portion of the distillation column which is lower than theposition where the gas component is supplied.
 8. The method according toclaim 7, wherein (meth)acrylic acid and methanol are reacted bysupplying them to a fixed bed reactor packed with the strongly acidicion exchange resin, wherein the (meth)acrylic acid and the methanol arecontacted in the gas-liquid parallel flow mode.
 9. The method accordingto claim 1, wherein a reaction mixture obtained by the reaction of(meth)acrylic acid with the alcohol under reduced pressure, is suppliedto a (meth)acrylic acid separation distillation column of a next stepwithout cooling or condensing it.
 10. The method according to claim 1,wherein a heat exchanger type multitubular reactor is used as anesterification reactor, wherein the catalyst is packed in the reactiontubes, and the reaction tubes are heated by steam or a heating medium.11. The method according to claim 1, wherein acrylic acid is used as the(meth)acrylic acid.